


Full Circle

by collatorsden_archivist



Category: Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars & Related Fandoms, Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Madness, PG-13 - Blue Cortina, Time Period: 1973-1981 (Life on Mars), Time Period: 2006-present (Life on Mars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-06
Updated: 2008-04-06
Packaged: 2019-01-20 16:45:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12437259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collatorsden_archivist/pseuds/collatorsden_archivist
Summary: Every beginning has an ending.





	Full Circle

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Janni, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [the Collators' Den](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Collators%27_Den), which was moved to the AO3 to ensure access and longevity for the fanworks. I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in October 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [the Collators' Den collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/collatorsden/profile).
> 
>  **Author's notes:** **SPOILERS:** for episode 1.01
> 
> A follow on from [DNA](http://kerfuffle.org/collatorsden/eFiction331/viewstory.php?sid=19) and [Replication](http://kerfuffle.org/collatorsden/eFiction331/viewstory.php?sid=20)

Superintendent Chris Skelton, one of London’s finest, puts the phone receiver down and rubs his face tiredly. He’d heard about the murders, of course. The boss had always talked about them happening again in thirty years time and, as the years had gone on, he’d started to believe him.

 

 

It was Annie who had pointed out the single sentence he’d missed in the news report. She’d also pointed out that the boss had insisted he was a DCI. Chris doesn’t doubt him now, but he feels as if his life is spiralling out of control. From the same old, same old to television drama in a two-minute phone call. There are no co-incidences, of course, and Chris knows that he’s finally got his man.

 

 

He picks up the phone again and dials a number once forgotten.

* * * * *

DCI Sam Tyler (retired) finishes washing his hands and dries them slowly on a hand-towel. Since everything came together he’s washed his hands constantly and they are red and sore and cracked. He pulls on his jacket, the one he never got round to throwing out and walks down the corridor to the room at the end.

 

 

The man in the bed is thin and emaciated, kept alive only by the wonders of the modern age. Sam has had a vague plan to end it here, now, but as he gazes down at his younger self, he knows that he cannot do it. DCI Tyler is dying and nothing can change that, but an old man who is out of time can’t do anything to hasten the end. This is where it ends for him and nothing can change that either.

 

 

He sits down and prepares to wait.

* * * * *

DI Peter Kirk can’t remember why he agreed to this. He’s pretty sure you can only have two people at a bedside at any one time. Plus he’s rather confused as to whom he is supposed to be arresting. Superintendent Skelton insists he’s cleared it all with his boss, but Peter can’t imagine how the boss would agree to the two geriatric men and the Super’s wife coming along. Ex-coppers, the lot of ‘em, here to be in on solving a case over thirty years old, back when DCI Sam Tyler was barely out of nappies.

 

 

He shakes his head to clear those thoughts and walks through the doors. The room is dimly lit and he almost misses the man sat back in the shadows to one side of the bed. He looks tired and out of place, as if his time was long ago and he’s only just realised this. Peter’s companions stiffen as the man in the chair nods to each of them then slowly stands, holding his hands out in front of him. Peter has finally got his man.

 

 

As he starts to read the man his rights, the old one, the one who looks as if he’s been dying for a fag for the last thirty years, leans over him and proclaims loudly: “Sammy-boy, you’re nicked”.

 

 

_fin_


End file.
